Knowledge Production (I): What do we know? The geopolitics of hegemonic knowledge making.

27 Outubro 2026, 16:30 • Thomas Gerhard Erich Muhr

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This week we took a closer look at the hierarchical, colonial power structure inherent in the production of knowledge. This included scrutinising the geopolitical global division of labour regarding knowledge production (e.g., the North as a generator/provider of theory and methodology, the South as a consumer of these and site for fieldwork and knowledge extraction); how European knowledge became universalised; and the role of the European university in producing knowledge about ‘the other’, which legitimated colonisation from early on, and the role of the North/West-dominated global neoliberal corporate university regime in reproducing coloniality (e.g., global ‘league tables of universities, North-centric publishing, citation and evaluation practices/patterns).

 

Questions for discussion: 

Who produces what knowledge, where, when, what for, and for whom? How did European particularism become universalised? What (kinds of) knowledges are considered valid knowledges? What kind of epistemes are marginalised, subalterned, invisibilised and extinct in hegemonic knowledge production processes? What mechanisms have been established to reproduce the assumed superiority of North/West knowledge at a global scale?

Mapping decolonial struggle and thought in a colonised world.

26 Outubro 2026, 16:30 • Thomas Gerhard Erich Muhr

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Student presentations:

Baumann, H. 2023. Avatars of Eurocentrism in international political economy textbooks: The case of the Middle East and North Africa. Politics, 43(3), 439-453.

Harwood, J. 2023. Reflecting upon the past? Development Studies’ ambivalent relation to history. Progress in Development Studies, 23(2), 203–210.

Mapping decolonial struggle and thought in a colonised world

6 Outubro 2026, 16:30 • Thomas Gerhard Erich Muhr

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This session developped a more systematic understanding of global South liberation struggle and thought over space:time, in their anti-colonial, post-colonial and decolonial manifestations. Centred around the conceptual difference between de/colonisation and de/coloniality, we discussed the decolonial school of thought as a broad, cross- or transdisciplinary movement that bridges (has the potential to bridge) the divisions between the materialist and culturalist paradigms towards understanding and acting upon the world.

 

Questions for discussion: What are the differences between anti-, post- and de-colonialism? How does decolonisation theory contribute to the field of global development, both in theory and practice? How can contemporary global development(s) be interpreted through a decolonial lens?

The global South and global development: histories, conceptions, methodologies, representations (Student Presentations)

29 Setembro 2026, 16:30 • Thomas Gerhard Erich Muhr

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The global South and global development: histories, conceptions, methodologies, representations (Lecture/Seminar)

28 Setembro 2026, 16:30 • Thomas Gerhard Erich Muhr

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Since the 2010s, the notions of the global South (rather than, e.g., ‘the South’ or ‘Third World’) and global development (rather than ‘international development’) have become buzzwords in Development Studies and beyond. This session interrogated these terms through theoretical, methodological, empirical and political lenses. On this basis, we examined North/West representations of the South/East in word and image over time – from colonial map-making and art to contemporary media and academia.

 

Questions for discussion: What does ‘global’ mean? What is global about ‘global development’? Where is ‘the global South’? Who represents (or has the power to represent) the South how and to what end? How do representations contribute to – are used for – constructing colonial hegemony?